Bart Vansevenant, Verizon's director of integrated solutions, called the service "pretty unique. I haven't seen anything like it on the market." He said customers are "very interested" in the new service.

The backup and recovery service will be offered initially in New York, and Vansevenant said Verizon and IBM are looking at data center facilities from both companies to roll out the service in other areas, both in the U.S. and in other countries.

Vansevenant said pricing is on a per gigabyte basis, and varies based on retention periods and service levels. He declined to reveal pricing, but said it is "pretty competitive" with Internet-based backup services.

Customers can connect to the data centers via MPLS, optical ring or Ethernet.

IBM and Verizon are targeting "global enterprises with stringent security and performance requirements" for the service, including those in the financial, retail and healthcare industries, the companies said in a statement.

Don DeMarco, IBM vice president of business continuity and resiliency services, said in a statement that the service "offers a broad array of enterprise data protection, not just for files, but for very large data stores and transactional data base content. ... Managed Data vault is a single, secure solution to help clients retrieve a file, restore a device, or recover from a serious outage emergency. Working with Verizon, we are addressing the needs of enterprise users with large data footprints, whether it's 15, 50, 150 terabytes or even more."